Group claims Calvary is out of compliance because it hasn’t planted enough trees, harvested any for sale

A Wine Country group has sued Riverside County and Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship over what it says is the church’s failure to plant nearly half its 7.4 acres with pine trees.

Calvary Chapel, which has a 3,000-member congregation, was given a permit to operate on Rancho California Road in Wine Country in 1999. At the time, the church was given a waiver from the zoning requirement that 75 percent of properties be covered with wine grapes or citrus trees.

The church was directed to plant 48 percent of its property in “Christmas trees” instead.

Bob Tyler, a lawyer who represents the church, said Calvary Chapel Bible Fellowship is, in fact, in compliance. He suggested the suit was an attempt to derail the church’s expansion plans.

“This is about harassment and a few unhappy people that don’t want to see the church grow in any way,” Tyler said. “It really lacks any credibility.”

The county’s planting rule was added after local vintners sought to protect the verdant vineyard area east of Temecula from threatening suburban sprawl. The idea was to make it difficult for housing tracts to come in, and to ensure that all new development is compatible with the rural agricultural atmosphere.

As for Calvary Chapel, its compliance with the 13-year-old condition of approval has long been a point of contention.

At county meetings in recent years, winery owners and others have charged repeatedly that the church failed to comply with the 48 percent planting condition.

In August, during a boisterous hearing on Supervisor Jeff Stone’s proposed Wine Country Community Plan that would pave the way for a major winery expansion, the issue surfaced again.

With dozens of church members in the audience, vintner Mike Rennie asserted Calvary Chapel is out of compliance because it hasn’t been harvesting Christmas trees for cutting and displaying in people’s homes. The church retorted that the condition called for planting pine trees as landscaping, not for selling them.

Now a group of Wine Country residents and property owners that goes by the name Temecula Agriculture Conservation Council is asking a judge to weigh in on the dispute.

According to the lawsuit, a prominent member of the council is John Kelliher, who is board chairman for the Temecula Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau and owner of the Grapeline Wine Country Shuttle.

The suit seeks an injunction ordering the county to enforce the planting condition, and compelling Calvary Chapel to comply.

“This just goes to show the hostility toward this church,” Tyler said. “I’m not afraid of this action. I think we will prevail. And we will deal with it aggressively.”

Tyler said the church planted the site in accordance with county-approved plans.

“It was all signed off by the county of Riverside,” he said.

County spokesman Ray Smith said the county will review the lawsuit and determine how to respond.

The litigation comes as Calvary Chapel is trying to get the rules changed for new land uses.

Soon after the church obtained its permit, the county banned houses of worship in the agricultural district. That effectively kept all other churches out. And, more recently, the rule has become a roadblock to a proposed Calvary Chapel expansion.

Rebuffed by earlier efforts to repeal the ban, the church has asked that the Wine Country Community Plan be amended to allow religious institutions.